YouTube introduces a redirect away from extremist videos

YouTube on tabletYouTube has taken the first step toward for battling against the rise of extremist content on its platform by introducing a redirect to steer people away from terrorism-related videos. This comes a month after Google revealed their four-step plan to fight online extremism on the video sharing platform.

The Redirect Method was created by Google parent Alphabet’s security tech incubator in partnership with Moonshot CVE (Countering Violent Extremism), a not-for-profit startup that works with clients to counter extremism. The method redirects people that have searched for particular keywords related to extremist content toward curated video content that opposes those particular ideologies.

“This early product integration of the Redirect Method on YouTube is our latest effort to provide more resources and more content that can help change minds of people at risk of being radicalized,” said the YouTube team in a blog post. “As we develop this model of the Redirect Method on YouTube, we’ll measure success by how much this content is engaged.”

YouTube says it intends to build on the introduction of the Redirect Method ‘over coming weeks’. It says it will expand the product’s functionality to a wider set of search queries in other languages beyond English, use machine learning to update search query terms, work with NGOs to develop new video content to counter extremist messaging, and collaborate with Jigsaw to expand the Redirect Method to Europe.

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